This snowboarder got into the wrong kind of powder.
A former Canadian Olympian turned alleged drug lord who’s accused of ordering several murders has been added to the FBI’s Ten Most Wanted Fugitives list — with officials offering $10 million for information that leads to his arrest.
Ryan “El Jefe” Wedding, 43, who competed as a snowboarder for the 2002 Canadian Olympic team, is wanted for allegedly running a transnational drug trafficking network that shipped hundreds of pounds of cocaine from Columbia to Canada by way of California and Mexico, the Department of Justice said in a Thursday press release.
Wedding allegedly also orchestrated the murders of several people who owed money to the slope-dope and an accomplice who is already in US custody.
The State Department is offering a $10 million reward for anyone who can provide information that leads to the capture of “El Jefe.”
“Wedding went from shredding powder on the slopes at the Olympics to distributing powder cocaine on the streets of US cities and in his native Canada,” Akil Davis, Assistant Director of the FBI’s LA Field Office, said in the statement.
“The alleged murders of his competitors make Wedding a very dangerous man, and his addition to the list of Ten Most Wanted Fugitives, coupled with a major reward offer by the State Department, will make the public our partner so that we can catch up with him before he puts anyone else in danger,” Davis added.
An alleged accomplice of Wedding’s, Andrew Clark, 34, also a Canadian, was arrested in Mexico in October and extradited to the US last week.
A month before Clark’s arrest, he and Wedding were named in an indictment from the Central District of California that alleged the pair operated the transnational criminal enterprise.
The duo allegedly kept the drugs in a stash house in Los Angeles before using long-haul semi-trucks to transport the cocaine to Canada, according to authorities.
Wedding and Clark stand accused of directing the November 2023 murder of two members of a family in Ontario, Canada, in retaliation for a stolen drug shipment — and another alleged order of a May 2018 killing that stemmed from a drug debt, according to the indictment.
The Royal Canadian Mounted Police are involved in the investigation, calling it “imperative” that the nation’s former Olympic representative be brought to justice.
Wedding, who placed 24th in the men’s parallel giant slalom event at the Salt Lake City Olympics in 2002, is also known under aliases “Giant,” “Public Enemy,” “James Conrad King,” and “Jesse King,” the DOJ said.
He stands accused of conspiracy to distribute and possess with intent to distribute controlled substances, conspiracy to export cocaine, continuing criminal enterprise, murder in connection with a continual criminal enterprise and drug crime, attempt to commit murder in connection with a continuing criminal enterprise and drug crime, according to the FBI.
